Detail: Imran Qureshi is Deutsche Bank's 2013
"Artist of the Year." Born
1972 in Pakistan, he studied in Lahore
at the National College
of Arts with a major in miniature
painting—a traditional
discipline that he teaches there today.
Qureshi is considered to
be one of the most important
contemporary artists on the
Subcontinent, not least because he
reclaims the regionally and
historically rooted discipline of
miniature painting and
transports it to the present day. His
work constitutes a unique
synthesis of the genre's motifs and
techniques with current
issues and the formal language of
contemporary abstract
painting. Qureshi incorporates personal
observations on everyday
life in present-day Pakistan into his
work while acknowledging
that violence can be met with not only
in his native country,
but in many cultures and societies
worldwide.
In Qureshi's work, the exploration of
ornament is both a return
to tradition and a commentary on the
present day. The artist
converts miniature painting into site-
specific installations
that address architectural space. Works
such as Blessings Upon
the Land of My Love, 2011 (Sharjah
Biennale), or They Shimmer
Still, 2012 (Biennale of Sydney), harbor
references to the
historical or political meaning of the
respective buildings.
The show Imran Qureshi: Artist of the
Year 2013 at the Deutsche
Bank KunstHalle is the Pakistani
artist's first major
presentation in Europe. He has created
several large-scale
paintings for this spring's inaugural
exhibition at the
KunstHalle. A new series of Qureshi's
miniatures is shown in an
original architectural structure
reminiscent of buildings from
the Mogul period. The site-specific work
And They Still Seek the
Traces of Blood (2013) is being shown
together with the new
works, as is Qureshi's "Missiles"
series, which is presented in
the KunstHalle Studio.
Upon its conclusion, the exhibition will
travel to the Museo
d'arte contemporanea Roma (MACRO). In
May, Imran Qureshi will
realize a project for the roof garden of
the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York; he will also show in
the Italian Pavilion at
this year's 55th Biennale di Venezia.